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/ Jet Set Radio: General FAQ \
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by Reno
(aalfonso5@home.com)
Written for Monospace format
Do the '.'s line up with the numbers?
1234567890
..........
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----------------------- DISCLAIMER -------------------------
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This document is Copyright (c) 2000 Andrew Alfonso, all rights reserved. This
document may not be altered in any way, and may only be redistributed in its
original electronic form. This document is not to be used for promotional
and/or profitable purposes. Any information used from this document must be
given proper acknowledgement.
All aspects of Jet Set Radio/Jet Grind Radio used in this document are
Copyright (c) 1999, 2000 Sega. All rights reserved.
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-------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------
************************************************************
1 - Version History
2 - Introduction
3 - Basic Controls
4 - Basic Gameplay
4.1 - Graffiti
5 - Character Profiles
6 - General FAQ
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-------------------- VERSION HISTORY -----------------------
************************************************************
07/13/00 - VERSION 2.00: - Updated General FAQ
- Updated Character Profiles
07/13/00 - VERSION 1.50: - Updated General FAQ
- Updated Character Profiles
07/12/00 - VERSION 1.00: - First official release
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--------------------- INTRODUCTION -------------------------
============================================================
Jet Set Radio can be best described as a hip version of
Crazy Taxi, but with roller blades. The object of the game is to 'tag'
specified locations in a given level before the time limit expires.
You lead your gang, called the GG's, into a major turf war with
the other gangs of Tokyoto for the honour of being the top gang
in the city all the while evading Lieutenant Onimusha and his
police force, as well as battling the evil that is the Gold
Rhino corporation.
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-------------------- BASIC CONTROLS ------------------------
============================================================
Jet Set Radio only uses the analog stick during gameplay, but
you can use the d-pad when in any menu
A - Jump / Stunt
R - Dash
L - Position Camera behind skater / Graffiti Mode
Unlike in Tony Hawk, all grinds are done automatically for you.
The game goes for any stunts you do. The only requisite is that
you have to have enough air for the animation to activate. The
easiest way of doing this is by dashing with the R trigger,
grinding on anything and then jump and hold the A button.
Dashing lasts for only a couple of seconds, and after that there
is a significant lag time where you cannot dash at all. The longer
you dash, the wider the gap between dashes becomes.
When you press the L trigger while in front of a tag-able location,
you will automatically go into Graffiti Mode. Once you're
in Graffiti Mode you can let go of the L trigger (I didn't realize
this until a day ago, heh) when doing your motions. If you're not
standing in a spot where you can tag, the game will automatically center
the camera behind your skater.
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-------------------- BASIC GAMEPLAY ------------------------
============================================================
There are three different modes of play in Jet Set Radio: City
Challenge, Recruitment Challenge and Gang Tag Challenge.
City Challenge
--------------
In City Challenge, you are required to cover up all of the rival gang's tags
before the time limit expires.
In this mode you'll not only face off against members of a rival gang, but
Lieutenant Onimusha and his police force as they try to bring justice back
to the streets of Tokyoto.
The tags of rival gangs are denoted with a large red arrow, while bonus tag
spots are marked with a green arrow. You do not have to tag green arrows to
finish the level, but they're great to increase your score.
When you are being chased by Onimusha or any police members, there are certain
spots marked by a large blue arrow. These denote escape routes, where a cutscene
will occur that shows you escaping police. There are about 2 or 3 escape
routes per level.
In the later stages you don't have to worry about Onimusha, but you will need
to fear the Gold Rhino corporation, who will populate each stage right from the
start.
Recruitment Challenge
---------------------
Recruitment Challenge pits you head to head in a variation of HORSE, where you
have to mimic a potential member's moves in order to get them to join your gang.
Later on in the game the Recruitment Challenges will shift from the HORSE format
to a mad dash to tag a certain spot in the level. Yeah, that's aboot it ;P
Gang Tag Challenge
--------------
Gang Tag Challenge requires you to tag the backs of three gang members during the
time limit. There are only a couple levels like these, which is good because
they can be extremely frustrating
================
--- GRAFFITI ---
================
When you are in City Challenge, you must pick up spray cans in
order to start graffiting (you can thank me for pointing out
the painfully obvious later :P). There are three types of
cans scattered around each stage:
Yellow Cans - Add 1 to your total number of cans
Blue Cans - Add 5 to your total number of cans
Red Cans - Replenishes health
There are also three sizes of tags in the game: Small, Large
and X-Large
Small tags take just one can of paint, and you don't have
to stop in order to spray it. Just skate by and press the L
trigger and it will automatically tag the location. The game
is pretty forgiving on how far you have to be in order to tag
it, so don't worry about your space, just keep pressing L when
you're around it and you should get it easily.
Large tags take up 3 cans of paint, depending if you can do it
perfectly or not. X-large tags usually take up 6 cans of paint,
or even more. For both large and x-large tags, your skater will
stop and begin spraying their tag on the location. Icons will
appear to tell you how to move your analog stick in order for
the skater to correctly paint his tag.
Obviously the larger the tag, the longer the sequence of motions
will be, as well as the more complex. If you take too long to
do a motion, or you somehow mess it up, the game will start
from the beginning again.
============================================================
------------------ CHARACTER PROFILES ---------------------
============================================================
There are 10 characters that you can recruit into the GGs
in Jet Set Radio. You find them after completing certain
levels in the game.
--------
- Beat -
--------
This is the first person you start off with in the game.
He wears a yellow t-shirt with black pants, green glasses and
a funky set of headphones on his head.
-------
- Gum -
-------
The first person that you come across before you start on the
meat of the game. She wears a green and white dress with a
weird helmet. She also has one of the highest Tagging meters
in the game.
--------
- Corn -
--------
The second person you get wears a neat dark blue / teal touque
and light blue overalls.
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- Combo -
---------
Huge black dude that carries around a boombox on his shoulder.
He wears a gold chain with the Yen symbol on it (MONNNEEEYYY!!),
and also has the highest life meter in the game. You can recruit
this guy after reclaiming your home turf.
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- Garam -
---------
Well built black guy that wears a pair of insect glasses on his
eyes. He wears grey shorts and no shirt. You can pick up this
guy after you take over Poison Jam's hometurf
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- Cube -
------------------
Wears blue jeans, a grey shirt and a black long-sleeved undershirt.
You can recruit her after you take over the Noise Tanks's turf
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- Bis -
---------
This is the girl with the blue dress with ruffles and the same helmet as
Gum has. Apparently she isn't too great at performing stunts, so when
you try to recruit her, you have to do what she's *trying* to do in each
stunt. You can recruit her after you defeat the Poison Jam in the Gang
Tag challenge.
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- Yo-Yo -
-----------
He's the one who wears the yellow shades and the green sweater.
You can recruit him after you take over the second part of the Noise
Jam's stage.
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- Soda -
--------
If you're like me, you'll swear that this character is a dead ringer for
Bert of Sesame Street too :D. He's pretty awkward to use, because his
mobility is very limited, but he's still a real fun character to use.
You can recruit this brotha after you defeat the Rhino stage at
Tokyo Harbour.
---------
- Sugar -
---------
She wears white pants with a white shirt that has red stars on her... bosom.
Not much to say about her stats, except that she has the highest Tagging
meter along with Gum.
---------------
- Professor K -
---------------
The groovin DJ of the pirate radio station, Jet Set Radioooo! He's
the charasmatic man who unfolds the story in the game, as well as
being a playable character in the game. I'm almost certain he is,
as he's been skating in the intro sequence when I played more than
once already.
--------------
- Poison Jam -
--------------
This trio of gang members control the Tokyoto Harbour in Jet
Set Radio. They can be identified by the geeky looking monster
suits that they wear (how the fook do they blade with those things
on?!)
---------------
- Noise Tanks -
---------------
This gang is heavily into pirating computer software to satsify their
need for spray cans, or so Professor K says in the game. They're the
ones who wear the freaky bio-masks and dress all in beige.
-----------------
- Love Shockers -
-----------------
This trio of ladies have had their hearts broken once too often, and now
they're getting revenge by attempting to take over the GGs turf. They dress
kind of scantily, with black shorts and top, and a strange eyepiece.
-----------------------
- Lieutenant Onimusha -
-----------------------
The evil leader of the Tokyoto police, Onimusha would love to see you
behind bars with some guy named Bubba making you his new girlfriend.
Onimusha has two forms of attack: one with a handgun, and another with
whatever the fook he can find. In later stages you can see him riding
in a helicoptor or manning a tank, it's really a sight to see.
============================================================
--------------------- GENERAL FAQ -------------------------
============================================================
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- How the fook do I beat Poison Jam in the sewers? -
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[Note: Poison Jam are the gang that look like monsters :D]
This is really the first true challenge in the game, and I'm surprised
that they even made this the first Gang Tag Challenge. When I had
troubles with this stage, some people told me to just stand in their
'rest' place and tag them to hell before they leave. It works at
times, but I found that the best thing to do is keep up with them, and
dash when they're not dashing. As soon as you get the thought bubble
above your character's head, tag them multiple times. What I did
was mimic almost everything they did, such as dashing, doing a
wall ride and then jumping onto the railings for a grind. Keep in mind
that you're faster than these guys, so you can make up ground easily
and tag them. Don't worry about later Boss Tag matches, they're MUCH
easier than this one if you use somewhat the same tactics as this battle.
I used Combo against The Vampires, since he has the largest life
meter at that point, so he can absorb the punishment when you accidently
bump into a Vampire member.
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- What the fook do those meters me when selecting a character? -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The first meter represents your life meter, the longer it is, the
longer your life meter is (insert phallic joke here).
The second meter represents how your character handles in terms of
turning and speed.
The last meter is how difficult your tagging motions are for large
and x-large tag spots. The longer the meter is, the more difficult
the motions are (but higher the points)
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- How the fook do you complete Peace's second challenge? -
----------------------------------------------------------------
Peace's first challenge is pretty obvious, even if she screws it up
all the time. Her second challenge however, may not be so obvious.
To complete her second challenge, you need to grind down the arm of
the crane, jump to the first wire closest to the crane, and then jump
out to the wire to the left. From here, grind all the way to the
outside of the area. Believe me, this had me stumped for a long while,
until a kind soul (re: The Faceless Master :D) told me what to do.
------------------------------------------------------
- How the fook do you beat Yo-Yo's challenge? -
------------------------------------------------------
This Recruitment challenge is pretty easy once you know what exactly you
need to do. What I did was follow Yo-Yo to that little square that you can
access after you head straight on the subway tracks. I then jumped onto
the pickup truck and through the barrier to reach the downtown district.
Blade a little bit until you reach the bridge to your right that's just
before the little crescent at the end of this area. Get to the other
part of downtown and cross the street, and then head right. You should
see a small opening that you can walk into just before the road turns left
again. Follow this until you reach the residential (?) area where you
played before.
>From here, you have two options; you can either go straight, grind up the
'escape route' (from earlier in the game) and time your jump so you clear
the railing, or you can do it the safe way (but longer, natch) by heading
left a little bit, and grinding on that spiral beam (like you did
earlier in a Recruitment Challenge) and then jumping to the other beam and
landing where the tag is.
There are faster (and easier ways) of completing this challenge (as well as
the next races against your own GG members), but right now I use this since
it's fairly straight-forward and doesn't require that much timing.
-----------------------------------------------------------
- What the fook do those Jet Set Radio icons do? -
-----------------------------------------------------------
Those yellow icons that you can pick up while playing actually
unlock new tags that you can see while in Tag Edit mode.
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- How the fook do you beat Soda's challenge? -
-----------------------------------------------------
This one is pretty straight forward, although the stage map makes
you think otherwise. If you look at the Stage map before the
challenge starts, you'll notice that the Warehouse stage (the home
of the Poison Jam) and the stage with all those houses are actually
connected at a point. So, follow Soda into the sewers, and then
head for the sewer tunnel that'll get you to the Warehouse. From
there, head to the top of the level (the spot where you started
when you played on this stage the first time) and keep going through
the gate. Remember to dash at all times, because you don't have much
time to spare. Eventually you'll reach the House stage. Do a mad
dash down to the bottom of the level, remembering to pick up a spray
can along the way. If you want to do this a little faster, dash
and jump onto a wire and grind your way to the bottom of the level.
The tag spot is on the ground just before the huge house that leads
to the Tokyoto Harbour.
One important thing to remember is that this is the *only* way to
finish this challenge. I was fooled by the stage map a couple of times
because it shows a sewer tunnel that'll lead all the way to the tag area
with tons of time to spare. Unfortunately this sewer tunnel is blocked
off (much like the regular way to get to that area), so you'll have to
do some mad dashing in order to get it right.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
- How the fook do you beat that Sugar's challenge? -
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is probably one of the hardest Recruitment challenges because it requires
you to go from one end of the stage to the other in a very short amount of time.
The way I finished this stage is by following Sugar until she gets to the sewer
tunnels. She just stops all of a sudden once she reaches a certain location
in the tunnel. Just go past her to the gate and the stairs at the end of this
tunnel. From here it's just a mad dash to the bottom of the street. As soon as
you get out of the tunnel, take a right on the very first street you see.
grind anything you can or dash, just get down there real quick and remember
to pick up a spray can along the way. Grind on the last rail on that
street and tag the area. For this stage I used Bis (god, she's good for something,
finally!), because she has the fastest speed, and her low life meter is pretty much
a moot point in this challenge.
-------------------------------------------
- How the fook do I beat the last stage?! -
-------------------------------------------
[Warning: Potential Spoilers ahead]
I'm surprised that the last stage was this easy, considering some of the other
stuff you had to do in the game. Anyways, there are 5 tag spots that you need
to tag in this level, but the last one doesn't show up until you do the first
four. These four spots can be located outside of the rotating record that you
start off on. I recommend doing the spots that can be accessed by grinding
first, since they're the easiest to get to. Once there, watch out for the
huge gold Rhino that'll be floating above you. When your character has an
exclamation point above his head, get the hell away from the Gold Rhino, but
stay on the platform. He'll eventually go away for a few seconds and you can
complete the tag (by the way, all of these tag spots are X-Large). The next
two tag spots can be hard to get to, as they involve some good ol' platform
jumping. I can't tell you anything more than just time your jumps properly
to get to the other side. Then just tag away, remembering to watch out for
the Gold Rhino. After all four tags are completed, the record player in the
middle goes insane and is filled with debris, including 2 pipes that you can grind
up. Grind up one of these pipes and tag the dude in the middle. That's it! You've
finished Jet Set Radio. Enjoy the credits =D
============================================================
--------------------- TO BE DONE -------------------------
============================================================
- Possible walkthrough for the game
- Possible Map for each level
- Adding more character profiles (including enemies)
- More General FAQ questions, obviously ;)
- Clean up any grammar/spelling mistakes
============================================================
------------------- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -----------------------
============================================================
The Next Level (http://www.the-nextlevel.com) - shameless plug
faceless of EFnet - because he's just the man.
PenPenPlus of Espernet - because he's the man #2.
Ken Comeforo - Correcting and providing me with some of the character names.